Convocation, Investiture, White Coat Ceremony . . . what are all these events and why are they happening?
What is convocation?
What is investiture?
What is a White Coat Ceremony?
What is the purpose of the “summer read”?
What is convocation?
The word “convocation,” which comes from Latin and means “calling together,” can be used to refer to any large, formal assembly. In some academic communities, it is an annual celebration where members of the community—faculty, staff and students—are “called together” to mark the official opening of a new academic year. Often the leader of the campus (in our case, Chancellor Collins) makes a campus address and lays out plans for the upcoming year.
In addition to Chancellor Collins’s remarks, this year’s Convocation will feature welcome remarks from Dean Flotte and a keynote presentation by author Charles Kenney, Sorrel King and George Dover, MD. Kenney is a former journalist and the author of five works of nonfiction and three novels. In his book The Best Practice, Kenney describes how the new quality movement is transforming medicine. King is the mother of a child whose death as a result of medical error is described in Kenney’s book. Dr. Dover is pediatrician-in-chief at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center and was the chief physician at the time King sought care for her daughter.
What is investiture?
The word “investiture” refers to the formal installation of someone to a post. At UMass Chan, Investiture is a periodic recognition of distinguished faculty members who have been chosen for named professorships, and a celebration of the benefactors who made the named professorships possible through their generous contributions.
UMass Chan currently has 32 named professorships. These endowments increase the institution’s ability to attract and retain individuals who are distinguished in their fields and provide an opportunity for donors to contribute directly to the enrichment of the academic and scientific environment.
At the 2010 Investiture, six professors will be invested into named professorships, as follows:
Harry M. Haidak Professorship in Surgery
Recipient: Demetrius E. M. Litwin, MD, MBA
Celia and Isaac Haidak Professorship in Medical Education
Recipient: Terence R. Flotte, MD
William and Doris Krupp Professorship in Medicine
Recipient: David M. Harlan, MD
Isadore and Fannie Foxman Chair in Medical Research
Recipient: Michael P. Czech, PhD
Penelope Booth Rockwell Chair in Biomedical Research
Recipient: Guangping Gao, PhD
Mary C
